When The Heavyweights made their debut at The Mint in July 2025, the show was supposed to be a one-off. Cory Henry, Eric Krasno and Robert "Sput" Searight had carved out a single night of improvised funk between three full schedules, and that was meant to be that.
Fourteen months later, that one-off has spawned a triple LP, stops in Chicago, Brooklyn and New Orleans, and an anniversary to celebrate. On the final Friday of September, the trio returned to West Hollywood's Live at The Sun Rose for an early and a late show, exactly one year after their last pair of sets in the room and their first L.A. dates since. Krasno noted the occasion from the stage during the late set, in a nod to how long a supposed one-night stand had lasted.
That first Sun Rose visit, which featured Terrace Martin sitting in on Jimi Hendrix's "Red House," was only the band's second gig. In the year since, Relix pressed their debut as the three-LP Live From The Mint, and the trio played Garcia's in Chicago, Brooklyn Bowl, and New Orleans' Joy Theater, where Oteil Burbridge and Robert Glasper joined in.
The Sun Rose sits on the stretch of Sunset Boulevard where the House of Blues stood from 1994 to 2015. These days, it's an intimate, roughly 100-seat supper club inside a hotel. On this Friday night, every table was taken, with fans filling the standing room behind them.
The late set opened with Hendrix's "Fire," Krasno on vocals and everyone taking a turn to solo. Searight then asked whether any guitar players were in the house, hinting that something special could happen if someone had a spare amp. Henry took the mic next for a funked-up take on Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," and the trio settled into a stretch of instrumentals, including War's "The World Is a Ghetto." Searight capped the run with a drum solo that bled into a Latin jazz groove, telling the crowd afterward that nothing makes a drummer happier than seeing people move in their seats.
By then, his amp request had been answered. An audience member happened to have one in their car, just in time to provide for Isaiah Sharkey. The Chicago guitaris—whose credits include D'Angelo and the Vanguard's Grammy-winning Black Messiah and tours with John Mayer—joined first for "Hey Joe," the Billy Roberts song that Hendrix made famous, with Krasno singing. That slid into Al Green's "Simply Beautiful," with Sharkey on lead vocals. Henry took a keys solo before Sharkey answered with a scorcher of his own, and the next instrumental turned into a back-and-forth between the two.
The Green pick fit with The Heavyweights’ established repertoire. At The Mint, the trio played "What a Wonderful Thing Love Is" from Green's 1972 album I'm Still in Love with You. "Simply Beautiful" comes from the same record, and so does Green's version of "Oh, Pretty Woman," which the band had played earlier in the set.
With the trio back on its own, Krasno and Henry each soloed through an instrumental take on The Beatles' "Something," a George Harrison ballad that’s become part of The Heavyweights’ canon. Henry then sang Bob Marley's "Is This Love," which drew the loudest whoops and hollers of the night from a crowd that had been cheering everyone on all evening.
Sharkey returned for an encore of Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up," which also closes Live From The Mint and has become the band's go-to finale. Henry made sure the entire room was up and dancing, to match the song’s famous refrain.
A year ago, vocals were a rarity at Heavyweights shows. On Friday, the late set featured mostly sung songs from three different singers, turning the show into more of a soul revue than an organ trio jam session.
The repertoire still consists almost entirely of covers, but the band behind it is no longer a one-off.